Market Revolution: Why it Was Good for Some, Not for Others
The Market Revolution of the 19th century could not have occurred without the Age of Industrialization that allowed it to displace the old mode of commerce and trade. Goods could now be produced en masse and shipped at far faster speeds than ever before. What had once been the work of the domestic role players was not taken out of their hands and made the work of laborers in factors. In every sector, technology played a part -- the cotton gin, the furnaces, the steel mills, the meat packers, the freight trains -- the landscape of America was changing and life and its social, spiritual, economic and political characteristics were also being impacted as a result. For some the impact was positive -- but for others it was negative. To some, the market revolution was a quality of American liberty; others viewed it as a danger. This conflicting response can be understood by examining the different ways in which some benefited and others were hurt by the market revolution of the 19th century.
For the robber barons, the market revolution was a great thing: it allowed them, under the guise of capitalism, to expand their monopolies across the nation. Men like Carnegie, Fisk, Harriman, Rockefeller and Morgan, all profited immensely from the market revolution. They dominated in manufacturing, finance, transportation and production. Their hands were into every aspect of life -- from moving goods to establishing communications to building the new urban landscape and the new cities of tomorrow, their influence and ability to profit from the new markets that were opening up thanks to Industrialization gave them unprecedented power. None of them would regret the market revolution, as they were positioned to make fortunes from the possibilities that arose as a result.
As Srebnick (1997) notes, "one feature of this economic development was that the traditional and more regulated systems of production...
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